Pork Tamales

I’m a firm believer that a home-cooked meal shared with family and friends, is one of life’s greatest blessings. It brings people together, helps us reconnect with one another, and turns an ordinary fact of life—eating—into something worth celebrating. Any home cooked meal can do this, and each cultural tradition has their own way. Mine is through tamales.

Every year, my family gets together to have a “tomalada” or as we call it “Tamale Day.” We have been making tamales on the first Saturday in December for over 30 years. Some years are harder to get together than others, but we all have Tamale Day on our mind that first weekend whether we are able to make it or not.

It’s one of the things that has kept us connected all these years.

The red sauce is the key. My red sauce recipe has been handed down to me from my mother, who got it from her mother. A perfect combination of spice and flavor, the sauce can be thickened, to be a gravy, or thinned out to mix in with the pork to make the pork filling. The red sauce makes our tamales fantastic, and according to the  friends, neighbors, coworkers, teachers, and soccer coaches that have received them over the years, they think so, too.

Tamales are typically made in large batches. When we throw our Tamale Day party, we make about 40 dozen!   It sounds like a lot, but when you’re with family and friends, catching up on each other’s lives and enjoying each other’s company, it goes by quickly.

One of the easiest parts of the tamale to make is the pork filling for the tamales. The recipe is include below, and is really for a small batch that you may cook at home for yourself.

Pork Tamales

This recipe explains how to make tender, flavorful pork filling for the tamales.

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Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Mexican

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 9 lbs

Author: Four to Cook For

Ingredients

• 13 lbs boneless pork butt shoulder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp granulated or powdered garlic
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Remove any fat from the meat and put in a 10-gallon stock pot.
• Add water to cover and then spices
• Cook over medium heat, adjusting temperature to maintain a simmer, for about 2-3 hours.
• When done, remove from stock pot, placing in a large platter or foil pan, and shred by hand. Remove any fat.
• Mix with red sauce and use for filling up the corn husks that are prepared with the masa.

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